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Any Number
Any Number was the first pricing game ever played on The Price Is Right, debuting on its premiere broadcast on September 4, 1972. It was also the final pricing game of Bob Barker's final episode on June 15, 2007. It is played with three prizes: a car, a three-digit prize, and the money in a piggy bank (in dollars and cents from $1.02 to $9.87). While the rules of the game technically allow the piggy bank to be worth as little as $0.12, producer Roger Dobkowitz has stated that he would never actually use an amount lower than $1.02. Any Number is one of only two pricing games in which is it not possible to win all of the announced prizes (not including small prizes or cash consolation prizes); the other is the now-retired Telephone Game. It is also one of the few games in which it is impossible not to win a prize, notwithstanding the low value of the piggy bank prize. Gameplay The contestant is shown a game board which lists the three prizes, along with spaces for the digits in their prices. Each digit, 0 to 9, appears exactly once on the board, not including the first digit in the price of the car, which is revealed for the contestant at the start of the game (this amendment made when cars began retailing for more than $10,000). The contestant is then asked to call out digits, one at a time, and their positions on the board are revealed. The contestant wins only the first prize whose price they complete. History Originally, cars played for in this game had just four digits in their prices, and no free digit was given. The golden version of the current board has a sliding top label that can cover the first readout number on the top row. This allowed the game to be played alternately for four or five-digit-priced vehicles, which were still common when the new board debuted during the primetime specials in the summer of 1986. Today the board is silver with no sliding top label (since there are no cars under $10,000), monitors housing the vane numbers instead of lighted panels, and ten little ovals housing the 10 single digits, with each one being crossed off after it was called. For the first few playings of Any Number, Anitra Ford would show the contestant an actual piggy bank before the contestant picked numbers. The words "PIGGY BANK" were used instead of the now-familiar image of a piggy bank to label the row of digits representing the amount in the piggy bank. Not only was this the first pricing game of 3 to be played, it was won right away. Foreign versions of Any Number Any Number has been used on many versions of The Price Is Right besides the US's, usually with the same basic rules. Versions known to differ from the standard format include the 1980s UK version with Leslie Crowther, in which the top prize had three digits, the middle prize had two digits, and the piggy bank had only one digit; France's Le Juste Prix, where the game began by revealing the last number in the big prize's 5-digit price (which was apparently always a 0); Mexico's Atínale al Precio, which placed the decimal point in the piggy bank's price between the second and third digits so as to allow it to contain more than a negligible amount of money; and Italy's OK, il Prezzo è Giusto!, which had only nine missing digits -- the first four of the largest prize, the first three of the smaller prize, and the first two of the piggy bank -- and used 0s only to fill in the end of each price. Additionally, in several countries, the game's largest prize is only sometimes a car, and still others do not play the game for cars at all. As with any pricing game, each version of the show has a unique look for Any Number's gameboard; arguably the most appropriate was the design on France's Le Juste Prix, where the prices lit up on a board shaped like a piggy bank. Pictures anynum1.jpg|First look of the board but without the title & blank cards. This is from the premiere show, September 4, 1972. anynum3.jpg|Notice the words "Piggy Bank" in place of a picture. Any Number 1.jpg|First look of the board but without the title and with a picture of the piggy bank. This is from September 15, 1972 and is featured on Disc 2 of the DVD set. anynum4.jpg|Second look of old board with title added. Any Number 2.jpg|Third look of the old board from 1985. Any Number Perfect.JPG|The more remembered golden oval board. (Five Digit Mode) With Right aligned text. Any Number 3.jpg|The more remembered golden oval board. (Four Digit Mode) Any Number 4.jpg|The more remembered golden oval board. (Five Digit Mode) Any Number 5.jpg|The current silver oval board. Note the available digits at the top of the board; each is crossed off as the contestant makes his/her choices. Perfect Any Number First Ever Perfect Any Number Win.jpg|This is the first ever perfect Any Number win! Perfect Any Number 1973.jpg|Here's one from 1973. Perfect Any Number from First Hour Long Show.jpg|Here's one from the first permanent hour long show on November 3, 1975 and featured on Disc 3 of the DVD set. Perfect Any Number Win.jpg|Here's one from Season 27. This may be the first since Any Number became a permanent five-digit game. Perfect Any Number 2011.jpg|Here's one from 2011. Category:Pricing Games Category:Active Games